With a win at Pocono, Denny Hamlin claimed his third consecutive Cup Series victory of 2026, and in doing so, he turned NASCAR on its head. Taking away the limelight from Tyler Reddick, Hamlin is the man to look out for now. However, he is still vulnerable.

Former NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick recently analyzed Hamlin's stellar rise to the top and compared it with Reddick's emphatic performance at the start of the season. With only 19 points differentiating the two drivers, Reddick may be ahead, but momentum is on Hamlin's side. But it won't be for long.

Harvick spoke about this on the "Speed" podcast co-hosted by him and Will Buxton, saying:

"I think the bad part for Denny Hamlin is the ground-making is most likely going to end this weekend because now we're going to a road course, and self-admittedly, Denny Hamlin says that the road courses are his kryptonite. He wants his goal to try to finish 15th."

Hamlin has won five races this season, one of which was the non-championship All-Star Race, while Reddick's tally is also the same, but all were points-paying races. Elaborating on Hamlin's mindset heading into the inaugural San Diego race weekend and Sonoma after that, Harvick added:

"So that tells you where Denny Hamlin's head is right now. So these two weeks in order to win the regular season championship for Tyler Reddick, he's got to make some ground up on Denny Hamlin. I know he still has a points lead, but he's got to widen that gap because if that gap is 60-70 points when they leave Sonoma, it'll be difficult for Denny to make up that ground."

Notably, road courses have been an Achilles heel for Denny Hamlin for years now. The Superspeedway star often struggled with the lack of maneuverability and mid-speed corners, resulting in poor qualifying and, as a result, poor results.

When Denny Hamlin Criticised NASCAR’s Road Course Schedule

Throughout his two-decade-long history, Denny Hamlin has emerged victorious at a road course only once in his career: in 2016 at Watkins Glen. Only one win out of his Cup tally of 64 is truly astonishing, considering the calibre he possesses.

In July 2025, Hamlin called out NASCAR's inclusion of several road courses into the season. Speaking against it on his "Actions Detrimental" podcast, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said:

"I'm not a road course fan. I still believe we have too many of them on the schedule… Six is a lot, considering that we are NASCAR. We're short track racing, oval racing, full contact type racing."

Compared to 2025, NASCAR has two fewer road courses in the calendar this season. It has three road courses, at Watkins Glen, COTA, and Sonoma, and one street course at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak